History of indenture labour migration
Indentureship was a worldwide phenomenon which started in the 19th century. It was an experiment in Mauritius. After the abolition of slavery demonstrate to the world the superiority of free labour over slave labour. Indenture involved mass migration of labourers from India, China, Africa and South East Asia to labor importing colonies. Mauritius was the first country which had recourse to indenture labour. The Mauritius success this system then other colonies adopted. The defining feature of 19th century plantation labour was the indenture system to a written contract entered into by a person to work for another for a given period of time. Indenture migration was individual who had not paid his or her
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Labors from Bengal were the first who were sent for indenture labour. The indentured workers sought to escape poverty and famines that were a frequent occurrence during the period of British colonial rule in India. Many were commonly misled about where they were departing for and the wages they would receive. The system of India indentured emigration to British colonies, which had been established to supply the labour needs of colonies, remained unfavored by Indian educated politicians. This paper is a focus on the some very brief history and background on the indenture system (labour). It is important to understand the nature of indenture migration and conditions faced by labors as well as the regions from where they were recruited and their religious affiliation The Indenture system, although based on a contract agreement between employer and labourers, different from other forms of contract labour that existed in the 17th and 18th centuries. The indentured workers were recruited from India, China and from the Pacific and signed a contract in their own countries to work abroad for a period of 5 years or more. They were meant to receive wages, a small amount of land and in some cases, promise of a …show more content…
In reality, this seldom happened, and the conditions were harsh and their wages low. Slavery, indenture and conscription are a few alternative techniques for incorporating foreigners (or locals) and organizing them in the service of a leading political power. The system of indenturing Indians came about mostly as a result of the ending of slavery in the British Empire in 1834, and was part of a planned emigration-cum-labor. H. Tinker holds the view that, the planters, in the British Empire (and elsewhere), deprived of their slave labor, "turned greedily to the millions of India, who they believed could be induced to labor in the cane fields for a pittance no greater than that awarded to the slave he called the
The labour-intensive cash crop of tobacco was farmed in the American South by indentured labourers in the 17th and 18th centuries.[1] Indentured servitude was not the same as the apprenticeship system by which skilled trades were taught, but similarities do exist between the two mechanisms, in that both require a set period of work.
During American colonization, the economy of the south became predominantly dependent on the tobacco plant. As the south continued to develop, they shifted their focus to cotton. Indentured servants as well as African slaves were used for these labor-intensive crops because their labor was decent and cheap (Shi and Tindall 39). Young British men were promised a life of freedom in America if they agreed to an exchange between a free voyage and labor for a fixed number of years. Many willing, able-bodied, and young men signed up with the hopes of establishing a bright future for themselves in America. Unbeknownst to them, indentured servitude was not as easy as it was made out to be. Many servants endured far worse experiences than they had ever imagined. The physical and emotional conditions they faced were horrible, their masters overworked them, and many had to do unprofessional work instead of work that enabled them to use their own personal skills. Young British men felt that because they faced such horrible circumstances, the exchange between a free voyage to America in exchange for servitude was not a proper trade.
Some of the earliest records of slavery date back to 1760 BC; Within such societies, slavery worked in a system of social stratification (Slavery in the United States, 2011), meaning inequality among different groups of people in a population (Sajjadi, 2008). After the establishment of Jamestown in 1607 as the first permanent English Chesapeake colony in the New World that was agriculturally-based; Tobacco became the colonies chief crop, requiring time consuming and intensive labor (Slavery in colonial America, 2011). Due to the headlight system established in Maryland in 1640, tobacco farmers looked for laborers primarily in England, as each farmer could obtain workers as well as land from importing English laborers. The farmers could then use such profits to purchase the passage of more laborers, thus gaining more land. Indentured servants, mostly male laborers and a few women immigrated to Colonial America and contracted to work from four to seven years in exchange for their passage (Norton, 41). Once services ended after the allotted amount of time, th...
Before the 1680's, indentured servitude was the primary source of labor in the newly developed colonies. There were both white and black indentured servants. White servants had even outnumbered black servants three to one. Some black indentured servants were able to complete there time of service, and even had land and servants of their own. After the 1680's, the population of white indentured servants decreased exponentially. There were a number of different reasons why the population of indentured servants had decreased. For whatever reason, indentured servitude was a form of labor that was declining, and the need for labor increased rapidly. #
There are many aspects contributing to the rise of slavery and decline of indentured servitude. The beginning of slavery started when Columbus invaded Hispaniola and enslaved the Arawaks . This was the first time people thought to enslave people against their will for labor. Hard labor and diseases nearly killed off their race, essentially concluding that they were no longer available candidates for labor. Indentured servitude was used as bait to lure people into enslavement and eventually began to fade due to multiple historical events, such as The Bacon Rebellion . African Americans became an easy target because they were less prone to diseases and their bodies were capable of such intense and difficult labor. As slavery began to rise in popularity certain laws were passed through Congress that supported slavery.
In many ways the lives indentured servants led in the colonies was seemingly privileged compared to that of a slaves. An indentured servant was an individual who had exchanged a predetermined number of years in servitude to their new masters (Faragher 2009, p. 55). Some indentured servants worked out the terms of their agreement prior to arrival. While some of the less fortunate servants were sold in a fashion similar to that of a slave (cummings, 1995). The servants who had pre-established contracts were transferred to their new masters after payment was rendered for their passage to the New World (Faragher 2009, p. 55). The term in which the servant was indebted was usually two to seven years (Faragher 2009, p. 55). However, the Masters had the upper hand because they could expand the length of servitude in accordance to bad behaviors, such as running away or becoming pregnant ("Colonial america,").
Slavery and indentured servitude were the primary means of help for the wealthy in America. Either as a slave or as an indentured servant a person was required to work in the fields maintain crops, as a house servant or as the owner of debtor so chooses. The treatment of both was very similar, but the method and means to which they came to America were uniquely different as the following examples will illustrate.
First, prior to 1650, planters shuttled indentured servants from England across the Atlantic in droves after they signed a multi-year contract of servitude in the mother country. Upon arrival, planters complained of apathetic workers, many of whom were sick and psychologically unfit to be in an alien land. Breen feels that the few servants that lived through their indenture often became depressed and grew bitter towards their former employers. As the mortality rates decreased, number of freed servants rose. The dis...
As the need for labor grew in Jamestown, the colonists turned to indentured servants. Indentured servants were English people that lived poorly in England. The person would work for a wealthy merchant or farmer in the New World for about 7 years for a passage to the New World. At the end of the 7 year contract, there were ‘freedom dues.’ The servants wo...
Indentured servitude was the institutional arrangement devised to increase labor mobility from Europe (particularly England) to America, and it was the labor system that preceded American slavery. Its emergence in Virginia in the seventeenth century can be seen as a development expedient to the circumstances surrounding the colony. Indentured servitude was practically the only way in which a poor person could get to the colonies and planters could be supplied with cheap labor. Richard Frethorne's document written in 1623, The Experiences of an Indentured Servant, legalized the master-servant relationship, specified the kind of labor to be performed, the length of time to be served, and the dues owed to the servant at the completion of his term.
The Cheap labour provided by Slaves from the 14th to the 17th century was crucial to the prosperity and advances made, during The Age of Exploration. The only costs associated with slavery was the purchase, transport and upkeep of slaves, and in most cases, the slaves themselves provided their own food. This made slavery extremely cheap, which was especially needed in a time where a large portion of a countries’ GDP was being used to fund their empire and conquests and little was left to build and maintain the buildings of home and their colonies. Moreover, in the case of the Americas, the cheap labour slaves provided was crucial. For instance, when settlers first arrive they must clear land, build houses and of course, farm the land. All of which requires a lot of labour which in the only recently settled America’s is not only hard to find, but also expensive and investment which was also scarce. Therefore, with the addition of slaves, farmers were able to run a farm for almost nothing, but export there produce, such as tobacco for a high price, increasing prosperity in both Europe, and the Americas. Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman supported this statement heavily in their book “Time on the Cross”...
Physical abuse by plantation owners towards both their servants and slaves was common. One account by Thomas Gates in a General Court of Colonial Virginia document about Elizabeth Abbot, an indentured servant, stated that “she had been sore beaten and her body full of sores and holes very dangerously raunckled and putrified both above her wast and uppon her hips and thighs” (General Court of Colonial Virginia). In fact, such abuse towards servants and slaves was so common that the state of Virginia had to make laws for such cases. Unfortunately, colonial governments did not consider corporal punishment illegal. Thus adding to the brutality endured by persons in captivity and servitude during the colonial era. “Moderate corporal punishment inflicted
The role of an indentured servant in the 1700s was not a glamorous one. They came to the New World knowing that, for a time, they would be slaves for someone they did not know and the risk of disease and death was high, but the opportunity that laid ahead of them after their time of servitude was worth everything to these settlers of the New World. They came to America for the same reasons as all of the other settlers. Religious freedom, land, wealth, and a new start were motives for both settlers and indentured servants but the one thing separating most settlers from the indentured servants was that they could afford their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Indentured servants couldn’t buy their ticket to the New World, but that didn’t stop
Indentured Servants helped the colonies progress their population. England at the time was over populated, and jobs were hard to find. So many people that could not afford the boat trip over to America offered themselves as to be an indentured servant for a period of time. This contractual term can last from between four to seven years. Many colonists preferred having indentured servants over slaves, cause they also helped ward off Native Americans from attacking settlers. The one big draw back of indentured servant was that they usually did not make it pass the first year of their contract.
When America was first founded the colonists believed that they could do one of two things. They could either ask for entire families and groups of people to come over from England to start family farms and businesses to help the colony prosper. The other option was to take advantage of the lower class people and promise them land and freedom for a couple of years of servitude (Charles Johnson et al, Africans in America 34). Obviously the second option was used and this was the start of indentured servitude in colonial America. The indentured servants that came from England were given plenty of accommodations in exchange for their servitude. They were also promised that after their time of service was complete that they would receive crops, land, and clothing to start their new found lives in America. Men, children, and even most criminals, rushed to the ports hoping to be able to find work in America and soon start their new life. However, a large quantity of them either died on the voyage over, died from diseases, or died from the intensity of their work, before their servitude was complete (Johnson et al, Africans, 34). America finally began to show signs of prosperity due to the crop, tobacco. The only problem now was that the majorit...